Showing until Thursday 10th August

“I am both doing the thing and subverting the thing”

Greta Gerwig (director)

Barbie (wish spellcheck wouldn’t keep calling her Barrie!) is great cinema – stylish,  entertaining, and a little thought provoking. It was an inspired choice to have Greta Gerwig as director, and I greatly enjoyed the performances of Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling and the rest of the cast. And it’s definitely not aimed at children. I think it will raise at least one or two questions for any woman or man in the audience, so I’m pleased that screenings are attracting a lot of people.

In his book One-Dimensional Man, Herbert Marcuse described the cultural totalitarianism created through consumerist and technological capitalism. This is the process where ‘the markets’ co-opt all protest, dilute it, and sell it back to us, the people. Think Che Guevara t-shirts, or “greenwashing”. It is the way our culture evolves until we can transcend capitalism.

Certainly Mattel will be laughing all the way to the bank.

Ken: To be honest, when I found out the patriarchy wasn’t just about horses, I lost interest.

Barbie: Kenland contains the seeds of its own destruction.

Can we really have it all?

Let us know what you think in the comments below

Bill Walton